I notice more cat trees in people’s windows when taking walks. I got one, then another, sold the first one and got another still. I’d give them a cat forest if I had the space.
Have they gotten more popular? If so, how come?
How can you tell if the cats are ripe?
Ripe cats are windfalls … they fall out of the trees
Low prices online is probably a factor.
I always see them at PetSmart and similar stores and at those places the cat trees start at about $40 for something very small and basic, and prices go up to about $300.
On Amazon a couple years ago I bought a huge 4 level cat tree for $60.
A lot of people adopted pets last year. You might be seeing more trees because there are more cats.
Many people rearranged their homes last year. Because they were home, they were able to see how much their cats like looking out the window. Maybe you are seeing old trees that have been moved around.
I’ve noticed that if I notice a lot of xyz lately, I start to look for for xyz which means I see more of them. Perhaps there aren’t any more trees, maybe you are just noticing them more?
Or, your neighbors might be like me. I move the trees out of the way at night, then shove them back in front of the windows when I think about it. So someone walking past our house in the morning won’t see trees, but they will see one in each window in the afternoon.
I’m home more. Giving the house panthers time to increase their control over me. I live to obey. If each cat requires it’s own cat tower, then I have no choice but to comply. 
Meanwhile, the snakes, the snakes just don’t care.
I forgot to address this. How did your cats deal with those changes? We used to have a ratty looking tree in front of our living room window. We saw a roadside stand selling amazing cat trees and I happily bought a 6 ft tree for a very good price.
We pushed the ratty tree into our bedroom (with a double window view) and proudly brought the new one in. The cats refused to use the new one (yes, I know how to bribe cats with catnip, they just REFUSED to consider my decorating choices). We put the new one in the bedroom and the ratty one back in the living room. As soon as we did that all the cats just LOVED the new tree.
They took well to it. The latter cat trees are larger and taller. The first cat tree just wasn’t around anymore so they didn’t have a choice anyway.
Maybe there is more marketing of pet pampering items in general these days? As a cat owner 40 years ago, I don’t think I paid much for my kitties beyond food, a collar, and vet care. Now it seems like there are so many items available.
Petco is kind of the “ToysRus” of pet care. Aren’t they a relatively recent phenomenon? In the old days, seems like every mall just had an independent pet supply shop.
I could well be wrong, though, as from 1986 to 2018 I didn’t live in the US, except very briefly . Maybe my viewpoint is skewed.
I think that’s another part of seeing what you are looking for that I mentioned.
PetCo and PetSmart have pushed the mom and pop stores out. PetCo went retail in the early '70s, I bought rats at Olsen’s when I was in Junior High (so not giving the year) and PetSmart showed up in the late 80’s.
When I am “keeping my eyes open” for something, I usually find it fairly quickly. If I’m not looking for it, unless it jumps out in front of me, I won’t see it and sometimes I won’t even see it then.
I have also lived with cats for some 40 years now, and me neither (or anyone I knew) had cat trees back in the day, but now I consider them almost a necessity. It is generally recognized that in order to be happy, cats need to have high places or perches to survey their surroundings safely from. Cat trees cater to that need, since many people don’t have high shelves, bunk beds etc. for the cats to use for that purpose
As a non-pet person, I think a lot of people are more accepting of spending money on pets. It’s not just food and water, but also outfits, shoes for snow, leashes for both dogs and cats, etc. Cat trees would seem to be redundant, as most people already have furniture. But many people recognize it may be better for both the people and the cats to have a dedicated cat space. Similar to people who build catios and install window ledges just for the cats.
We bought a three-level for $30 at CostCo a few years back. We put The Cat’s food on the top tier to get it out The Hounds’ of reach and he naps on the larger second tier where he’s (mostly) out of their reach as well.
The posts between the tiers are wound with sisal rope and the box the thing came in claimed they were scented with catnip scent so we hoped he’d change to clawing on them instead of the couch. Alas…
I did not know those things were called a cat tree.
We have a few, here are the reasons behind each.
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A proper cat tree with various nooks and crannies. We got it because we wanted to upgrade our old scratching post with something that would let the cats sit up high and oversee their house.
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A small cat tree that I built out of wood and carpet offcuts. We had a new TV, entertainment unit, and surround sound system. The cats had started using the new furniture to help climb the large cat tree. The small cat tree was built like stairs and was intended to give them an easier climbing route than the furniture. It worked well.
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An even smaller cat tree (cat shrub?) that lives upstairs in our new, two story, house. They hardly use it. Waste of money.
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A cat stump / scratching post, that sits part way up the stairs where they like to claw at the new carpet. It is moderately successful in getting them to claw the post instead of the carpet.
Perhaps placing it next to the main cat tree would help.
It’s supposed to be somewhere for them to sleep upstairs (main tree is downstairs), but they’d much rather be on the bed or sitting in the sun on a windowsill.